ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses story of thirty-seven women at Rikers Island. In vivid ways, their voices describe important and troubling dimensions of the human condition in contemporary society: their own words tell a very convincing story of gender entrapment. The book focuses on the research dimensions of the story. It reviews the women's experience of violence—the horrific degradation and their varied responses to it. The book describes the paths the women took to illegal activity when the women found themselves "running, dealing, robbing and stealing". The concept of gender entrapment—how women were compelled to crime—becomes clearer as these and other women's stories unfold. The book discusses the broad social context and merges it with the women's stories. It offers policy recommendations as a conclusion to the story of gender entrapment.